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I shall not live in Vain;
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I shall not live in Vain."
I have a Solution that will reduce pressure on IIT aspirants but do not know how to get this across to HRD Minister of India. Suggestions are welcome. (Ram Krishnaswamy)

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Thursday, November 3, 2016

Government has no proposal to set up its own counselling centre yet in Kota: Officials - India Today

Government has no proposal to set up its own counselling centre yet in Kota: Officials

"There is no proposal from the government to set up its own counselling centre but the district administration is mandated with monitoring the situation. All the coaching institutes have been asked to appoint professional clinical psychologists for counselling of students and their parents before admission," said District Collector Ravikumar Surpur.

No proposal from government to set up a counselling centre yet in Kota, Officials (Representational Image)

Kota, which witnessed several incidents of students committing suicide over the last few years, still awaits a government counselling facility for medical and engineering aspirants coming from different parts of the country.

Experts said that stress remains the prime cause behind youths' suicide who came to Rajasthan city, for preparations for entrance into prestigious colleges like the IITs.

This year, 14 students, including girls, have committed suicide in Kota, whereas 21 committed suicide last year. Still the government has no proposal for setting up a counselling centre of its own for the students, officials said.

The coaching centres in the town has also contributed hundreds of crores of rupees to the government fund in the form of service tax.

What did the district administration say?

The district administration has asked all the coaching institutes to appoint psychologists for counselling but the city has no full-fledged centre to start the counselling programme

"There is no proposal from the government to set up its own counselling centre but the district administration is mandated with monitoring the situation. All the coaching institutes have been asked to appoint professional clinical psychologists for counselling of students and their parents before admission," said District Collector Ravikumar Surpur

According to the collector, two local organisations are running helplines and conducting counselling for students for stress management.

Rs 167.79 crore collected as service tax: RTI's findings

The RTI reply to Chandrashekar Gaur of Madhya Pradesh revealed that in the last fiscal, Rs 167.79 crore have been collected as service tax from the coaching institutes, while Rs 87.59 crore have been collected till June this year

Gaur suggested that the government should set up a professional centre to counsel the students

Views of a doctor:

Dr M L Agrawal said he has counselled 540 students and many of them were accompanied by their parents. He runs a helpline called 'Hope'

"The level of stress was so high that 26 students were about to commit suicide and they were properly counselled and the thought of suicide was washed from their mind," he claimed

"In most of the cases, study-related issues are the main cause of stress. Besides, relationship and home sickness are also some of the important reasons," he added.